Meta-backed research says chronological feeds won’t fix platform polarization
theverge.com
theverge.com
In the (largely American-dominated) western anglosphere Polarization is on the rise because of a cultural conflict over the solutions to the problems of the next 50 or so years.
Namely: Climate change and climate migration.
The shrinking marginal utility of the average person.
Unequal outcomes between groups.
Adaption to rising challengers to American global military dominance.
It's not some irrational thing produced by consuming different flavours of news - it's a fundamental schism in group orientation between two largely incompatible approaches to future challenges (largely a fight between bottom-up designs that seek to minimize harm and middle-up designs that seek to maximize growth).
We can't just lay this at the feet of media companies and their intermediaries, that's far too naive.
People increasingly use politics for self definition in the marketplace of ideas and flooded with pithy ideas to satisfy and exploit this demand.
The real question is is this process even possible to stop? Does multiculturalism help or hurt this process? Etc. Etc. We have a world of data to analyze. Will we be able to honesty face the results?
Conceptually, sure. In practice, I think it is less clear, but in general, I'm an optimist.
This is because I think living in a ideological consummerist mindset is fulfilling, and over time, humans will lean and adapt, either individually or culturally. Like tulips, crypto, or whalebone corsets, consummerism relies on novely and the promise of fulfillment to dupe buyers. On a sufficiently long timeline, consumers realize that whatever they are buying isnt actually making their lives complete.
>Does multiculturalism help or hurt this process?
I don't have a stong opinion on this, so maybe it is a wash. Multiculturalism (ethnic, political, or other) certianly adds some more fuel to the fire, in terms of more shallow Identities and thoughts to buy into or object to. On the other hand, most cultures have subcultures that aren't shallow or polarized, so perhaps multiculturalism provides more ideological exit routes from the house fire it fuels. Time will tell if people will find and use those exits.